Christ Church Cathedral, located on the northeast part of Monument Circle, is the oldest church building still standing in Indianapolis. Built in 1857, the stone church replaced an earlier wooden chapel from 1837. As the main church for the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis and one of the first permanent congregations in the city, Christ Church shows how important religious institutions were in shaping the social and moral life of 1800s Indianapolis. In the city’s early years, churches were often the first civic buildings to be built—sometimes before schools, banks, or government offices. Churches were not just for worship. They were also places for learning, helping others, and having public discussions. Many of Christ Church’s members were important business owners, lawyers, and public leaders who helped guide the city’s early growth. The church was also known for helping the community, offering charity programs and setting up missions to support the growing population.
Building the stone cathedral in the 1850s showed both the church’s strength and the city’s growing interest in impressive architecture. The church was designed by architect William Tinsley and includes pointed arches, stained glass windows, and a tall bell tower. These were all features of the Gothic Revival style, which was popular for churches at the time. Its location on the Circle shows how closely religion and public life were connected in early Indianapolis. The cathedral also supported the city’s cultural life. It hosted lectures, concerts, and public meetings, welcoming people from both religious and non-religious backgrounds. Its music programs, especially its long-running choir, helped give Indianapolis a strong reputation in the region. Today, Christ Church Cathedral still serves as both a place of worship and a historic landmark. As a stop on this tour, it helps us understand the spiritual, architectural, and community roles churches had during the city’s early years. It reminds us that religion in the 1800s Indianapolis was not just a personal belief, but a public force that helped shape schools, charity, and civic life.
]]>In 1837, Presbyterians in the United States began to split over theological issues. The “Old School” Presbyterians of the first church wanted to maintain their religious views and were more tolerant of slavery. The “New School” supported abolition and reform. On November 13, 1838, the Second Presbyterian Church was created in Indianapolis. Fifteen members of the First Presbyterian Church founded it. Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most infamous preachers in the United States in the 19th century and brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, became its first pastor. Beecher had initially been a pastor to the First Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, but accepted the position at the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis in 1839. He was able to build the church into the second-largest Presbyterian Church in the state before he left in 1847 to preach in New York.
Beecher believed that music was an important way of teaching spiritual beliefs. He said that “there is more sound instruction given to a congregation by [proper use of music] than by almost any other [means].” His brother, Charles Beecher, led the choir of the well-known Church. Under his leadership, there were between forty and fifty singers. They often gave public performances. The song “Man the Lifeboat, Brother” was a favorite. Charles was a skilled organist and violinist and would accompany the choir. For the new church, he acquired a pump organ that had to be pumped by hand by the organist. The church would also bring to Indiana one of the first large concerts featuring music by renowned composers like Mozart and Haydn in December 1842. In fact, Henry Ward Beecher sang with the choir’s performance of Mozart’s Twelfth Mass during that concert.
The Second Presbyterian Church was not the only congregation that placed importance on the use of music in worship in Indianapolis. The First Baptist Church, established in 1822, had a choir. They would have the first pipe organ in the city installed in 1863. The First Presbyterian Church had a flute and string orchestra that was started around 1846 and lasted five years. Nearly every singer, music teacher, and orchestral director was linked to churches or church unions in the 19th century. The foundation of music in Indiana’s capital is built on the work of dedicated preachers, teachers, and performers through worship.
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]]>On June 16, 1859, a Methodist camp was founded in the Indianapolis District of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Located in London, Indiana, part of Shelby County, a group of twenty-eight ministers, Methodists, and laymen founded a campground in Indianapolis. Originally, the area was a village named Farmersville, which was platted as a stop on the Cincinnati and Indianapolis railroads. It was later renamed Acton and was incorporated into Indianapolis. The campground was quite successful. In 1864, it was used as a Union hospital during the Civil War. The camp mysteriously burned to the ground on August 4, 1864. According to official reports it was done by “enemies of the county.” It is also likely that those living in Acton burned it down because they didn’t want a military hospital near their homes. By 1866, it was completely rebuilt and the town flourished. By the 1880s, Acton had multiple churches, stores, mills, and around three hundred residents.
One of the hallmarks of nineteenth-century camp meetings was worship through music. Camp meetings were an essential part of the spread of religion in rural populations. While Acton effectively had its own church, and many nearby, not every town did. Music, especially shape-note music, was a central part of the sermons. Shape notes are not only a way of printing music, but they were also a way of teaching it. By using shapes to represent intervals, anyone could follow along regardless of their ability to read music. The first shape note book was printed in 1801, and they became wildly popular in the United States. The Methodist Harmonist, published by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1833, was one of these books.
Acton was not the only campground. According to a lecture in 1881 in Acton, there were campgrounds in Wayne County and Henry County in the 1830s, and camp meetings were held throughout the state. Music was a part of their sermons from the beginning. Father James Havens, in 1837, led a prayer circle at a meeting near Marion County. He appointed men to “bring out the people and come singing to the circle.” While it is not directly called a shape-note performance, circle singing was the primary way of conducting them. Havens reportedly “mounted a bench and gave a most powerful exhortation” and led the congregation in singing the hymn “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” Havens, among other early preachers, would later come to the Acton Campground. The tradition of spreading the gospel through music was undoubtedly brought with them.
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]]>St. Mary of the Knobs Catholic Church exemplifies the enduring strength of Roman Catholicism in southern Indiana. In the 1820s, Catholic priests began visiting several families in Lafayette Township, six miles north of New Albany, to celebrate mass. About 1823 residents of the era erected a small log church for their services. In 1833, Father Louis Neyron became the first resident priest. A Frenchman, Neyron had served in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army as a surgeon. Upon turning to the priesthood he emigrated to the United States and ministered to a parish in Mooresville, near Indianapolis. Tradition holds that Catholic families settled in Floyds Knobs because of anti-Catholic sentiments in New Albany.
Soon after becoming the priest at Lafayette Township, Neyron oversaw construction of the first permanent Catholic church in Floyd County. Erected on a site near the log building, it was built of brick and measured 33 x 73 feet. A bell imported from France called parishioners to mass. The sanctuary featured a large crucifix and a statue of St. Joseph.
In 1906, Father Joseph J. Sermersheim began planning for construction of a new chapel. The foundation was poured in 1908, and within a year parish members and local contractors completed the project. The chapel measures 54 x 100 feet and is designed in the English Gothic style. Built at a cost of $35,000, the building was dedicated on May 16, 1909. A reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal descried it as “one of the handsomest country churches in Indiana.”
Construction of the new chapel took place as part of an expansion of the parish’s programs. During the 1890s, St. Mary of the Knobs built a residence for several Benedictine nuns who came to the parish to start a school. A building for the school was completed about 1900.
Apart from minor repairs, the St. Mary of the Knobs chapel remained unchanged for eighty-seven years. In 1995, the congregation initiated renovations. Workers added a new sound system, refurbished the interior, and removed the eight-foot gold cross from the steeple to be regilded, a project that used 600 3.375” square sheets of gold.
In 2007, St. Mary of the Knobs began a third major building campaign after a parishioner donated thirty-three acres of land adjacent to the church’s existing 59-acre campus. The congregation immediately began raising funds for a new church building and an activity center. The design of the new church pays homage to the 1909 chapel and has a seating capacity of 964. Art and icons in the sanctuary include handcrafted works by parishioners. Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis dedicated the building at a ceremony held March 25, 2012. The congregation named the activity center for a former pastor, Reverend John Geis.
]]>Atkins Chapel is one of the oldest places of worship in southern Indiana. In 1822, Jacob Antrim, a United Brethren circuit-riding preacher, organized a church in Lafayette Township, immediately north of New Albany, in Floyds Knobs. The congregation met for twenty years in a small log building near the intersection of Banet and Balmer Fenwick roads. The United Brethren grew out of the Great Awakening. A loosely organized movement, it took root in German-speaking churches in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio. Antrim, recalled as “a good signer, an ingenious preacher, [and] a great exhorter,” brought the faith to southern Indiana, where it spread among early settlers. The congregation of the “Knobs Church,” as the Lafayette Township group became known, declined after a time and eventually disbanded.
In 1845, John A. Atkins, his wife, and several other settlers organized a new church in Lafayette Township. Atkins, a minister and farmer, descended from early settlers. His brothers, Henry and William, also joined the church, and Thomas Conner served as the first minister. The congregation met in a log church formerly used by group of Swedenborgians. This building served the congregation for about a quarter century, when it decided to build a new, more modern structure. John Atkins donated land on Atkins Road, directly opposite the site of the Swedenborgian church, and members of the congregation and neighbors erected “a neat, white frame building.” Because of Atkins’s influence, the structure came to be called “Atkins Chapel.”
Although an 1882 account described Atkins Chapel as “not a strong church,” the congregation grew over time. In 1908, members opted to build a new house of worship. Erected at a cost of $2,500, the new structure measured 24 x 36 feet and with an adjoining vestibule. On August 23, 1908, between 300 and 400 people attended a dedication ceremony led by Reverend J. P. Roberts of Indianapolis. Describing the event for the Religious Telescope, the United Brethren newspaper, a short while later, Roberts claimed he had “never seen a congregation in as limited circumstances . . . give quote so freely and cheerfully.” By the end of the day, the church had raised nearly $700, a sum adequate to sustain its activities for some time.
In 1946, the liberal wing of the United Brethren merged with the Evangelical Association, a Pennsylvania-based group of churches with similar beliefs, to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. In 1968, this organization merged with Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church (UMC). Atkins Chapel is today known as Atkins Chapel United Methodist. In 1956, the congregation built an annex and enlarged the church basement to provide new classrooms and a fellowship hall.
The late twentieth-century history of Atkins Chapel is closely associated with Reverend Adrian Struble, who served as minster for twenty-four years before retiring in June 1990. Struble, then aged 99, was believed to be the oldest active United Methodist minister in Indiana.
]]>Dedicated in October 1977, the Holy Trinity Heritage Court commemorates the history of Roman Catholics in southern Indiana. The court marks the site of the former Holy Trinity Church. The court includes portions of the original brick foundation of the church and two bronze bells. Fire destroyed the church on December 29, 1975. Holy Trinity Heritage Court is a a site of remembrance, celebration, and pilgrimage for Catholics in southern Indiana.
Holy Trinity Church served as the first of four Catholic parishes in New Albany. The site of the church has been an anchor of Catholicism in New Albany since 1837, when Father Louis Neyron purchased the lot and had a small one-story structure built on the location to offer mass. As membership grew, parishioners developed plans for the construction of a brick church. Tensions between Irish and German parishioners resulted in a split. When completed in 1852, the Gothic-style church building served the Irish members. In 1865, Father John Mougin blessed two bronze bells in a special ceremony. During the December 29, 1975, fire, the bells fell from the steeple and cracked on the front steps of the building.
Following the fire, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis rejected plans to rebuild on the site. Holy Trinity parishioners joined St. Mary’s of the Annunciation and other Catholic churches in the area. Members of the former parish chose to allocate money from the insurance settlement for the construction of Holy Trinity Heritage Court. In April 1977, former members of the church helped plant 150 trees on the site to commemorate the parish’s history. Many of the former church buildings have been repurposed; the former rectory served as the location of religious agencies for thirty years. Recently, the St. Elizabeth Maternity Center completed a full renovation of the building to serve as its central office.
]]>Presbyterians have been active in New Albany since its beginnings in 1813. The Scribner family, which founded the town, brought their Presbyterian faith with them from New England. Presbyterians in New Albany and the neighboring town of Jeffersonville, Indiana, formed a joint congregation in 1816 under the direction of Reverend James McGready. By December 1817, the congregation had split. The New Albany contingent subsequently established the First Presbyterian Church of New Albany. The first formal meeting of the church took place at the Scribner’s house on East Main Street. The location of church meetings varied until the congregation built a permanent structure in 1854. The building stood on the east side of Bank Street between Main and Market streets. It served First Presbyterian until the congregation consolidated with St. John United Presbyterian Church in 1969.
Conflict over abolition split the First Presbyterian congregation in 1837. Most members viewed slavery as wrong but wished to remain passive observers. Others urged active participation in abolitionism. The later group formed the Second Presbyterian Church of New Albany, which soon became a center of antislavery activity. According to local tradition, the congregation used their new building, now known as the Town Clock Church, to shelter runaway slaves. Church leaders such as Reverends Sneed and Atterbury, and congregation elders like James Brooks, the church hid and transported runaway slaves well into the Civil War.
In 1853 the Presbyterian Church split due to pressures from the large size of the congregation. The split formed the Third Presbyterian Church. All three Presbyterian Churches functioned separately for over 60 years. In 1917, the Second and Third churches united as the Hutchinson Presbyterian Church. The new congregation named itself after a prominent pastor.
In 1969, New Albany Presbyterians united as one congregation. They formed the present day St. John United Presbyterian Church. The congregation is located in a former building of Second Presbyterian Church.
]]>Tucked away at the intersection of West Vermont Street and Toledo Street, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Indianapolis is a beautiful brick structure overlooking the canal. The building was home to a congregation that has been very active in the pursuit of equality for over 150 years.
Free Africans and African Americans in Philadelaphia founded the denomination in the late 1700s, with the goal of promoting racial equality through moral uplift and social justice. Previously, if Black people wanted to participate in church services, they were often discriminated against by white congregations.
The Indianapolis parishioners formed their church in 1836, building on Georgia Street in 1840. Most Northern cities experienced an explosion in the growth of their respective black communities. Indiana’s position on the border of the slaveholding South made it a popular destination for freedom seekers. Bethel AME assisted people on their journeys further north, but a white majority in the state did not appreciate this influx of Black people. In 1830, the Indiana state legislature passed a law that banned the immigration of Black and mixed race people and forced those that did settle here to pay a $500 fine. However, this did not deter the Bethel’s congregation activities with the Underground Railroad. Bethel AME’s activities did not go unnoticed by the white community. Although the church had many supporters, including local white clergyman Calvin Fletcher; the pro-equality actions of the church angered many people, prompting a mysterious fire that burned down the original church in 1864 . At the time, Reverend Willis Revel was actively recruiting Black citizens to serve in the Indiana Colored Infantry during the Civil War . The church was unfazed by this act of terrorism, rebuilding their church at this location (1864-1870) and continuing their quest for racial equality.
Bethel AME Church of Indianapolis not only promoted its own causes, but served as a foundational meeting place for many African American groups fighting for civil rights, including the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP) and the Indiana Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. The church’s leaders also believed that the hope for the future of Black equality in general was its youth. In 1858, the church started its own boarding school, where students studied “spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, anatomy, physiology, and hygiene” among other subjects . Bethel AME was very active in the lives of the African American children of Indianapolis, both in religion and education.
The tradition of social justice and civil rights remains a cornerstone of the Bethel AME Church in Indianapolis today, which is now called Bethel Cathedral and located on Zionsville Road in Pike Township. A virtual tour of the Bethel AME Church building on Vermont street can be accessed here!
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